Hi, ever since Steel Division came out I trashed my old mod and started something new. Learned a lot of lessons from the last mod and brought them in to a fresh start. This time I have videos about some of the neat features I've added into my mod!

Quick summary of the mod:A focus on creating a ww2 game that embodies the strategic and tactical decisions of a lieutenant/platoon leader. The scope of the game will revolve around the scale that an LT may maneuver its units to engage another platoon. The feeling of the game should be likened to chess where pieces are limited and balanced for 1-on-1 engagements. It is assumed that 1v1 balances will scale to team games. The historical feel will come from the unit structure and management within a platoon per faction and to a limited extent the units themselves, however there will be a stronger focus on balance rather than historical accuracy when it comes to unit-to-unit performance. That being said, general principles on ww2 strategies will be historically similar but tactics may not due to game balances. Platoon compositions and unit loadouts will be historical to a limited extent without sacrificing balance.

Now the more interesting things: Mechanics. (I think you guys would especially enjoy the armor combat I'm working on... feel free to skip to that)

Getting rid of the classic company of heroes "doctrine/commander/choose ____" system. I can only think of one other mod that forces you to pick a "doctrine" before you can even do anything. I decided to take the risk and follow the same path in hopes that balance wouldn't be affected because of good design. Here's a short breakdown of how the platoon system works:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpJoOkBPBwUFeature Summary:- Choose platoon before game starts- Unit availability based on platoon- No base building, all call ins to the battlefield keeping the game combat oriented

Infantry mechanics is very different. I can safely say no other company of heroes game or mod does it the way I do. Though it may not FEEL as apparent when comparing with something like BK... there are some fundamental differences that add a layer of complexity that I hope you find interesting! Quick overview of the infantry features:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj-Cb5O-Ks4Feature Summary:- Unprecedented morale system- Stance and behavior settings- Unit AI and formation tweaks (for the sake of realism and gameplay optimization)

Armor mechanics was a lot of fun to experiment with. It's still a little glitchy, but I"m glad it's working out. It's still a work in process... there are a lot of things i"m still experimenting with. I can go into detail about all the decisions made so far, but armor combat is extremely tricky and sensitive because of all the fans in the CoH community. Hopefully I've nailed something you guys would enjoy:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51aeyTlgnWwFeature summary:- No HP system, morale based like infantry- Component and penetration based combat- Terrain sensitive tank combat (makes the dimensions of armor combat more than just power vs power and rear shots)- Tank component targeting (ever wish you could command your tank to aim for the wheels?) (still experimenting)

Let me know what you guys think!Thanks to the people who've been helping me talk, design, and test so far! Your brains were super important to me in both this mod and the old one.Hopefully I can get a version for everyone to test and try out soon!

Hmm, implementing the Steel Division idea of "battle-groups" into CoH while combining that with the superior CoH mechanics and features.. is actually an interesting thing to do, even though it might be very difficult to achieve... However, I would say it's probably worth the efforts. So good luck anyway!

Not quite, there is no outside of game company builder. But I did get a lot of ideas from it such as the "no base building" aspect. But, unlike EIR you can be more adaptive and fluid with your unit choices. Another mod was trying to be like EIR but that was scrapped some years ago unfortunately. It was lead by one of the best coh2 modders out there (who ironically never released a mod.

There is a lot off "out of combat micro" in regards to setting your units to the right settings you want. But when it comes to in combat, a lot of abilities lock actually bringing the focus to positioning the units in a fight after you've predetermined their behavior. The idea behind this is to reward pre-planning strategies over in the moment micro. So things like setting rate of fire for weapon settings (for example the lmgs have an ability that lets you turn the gun to burst mode with short burst shots or cyclic fire where the user pretty much holds the trigger down) need to be done before a fight starts. Do you want your guns to focus on suppressing or killing? You're the lieutenant that needs to tell your soldiers before a fire fight begins because once you get into the fight, soldiers aren't going to accepting micro orders with bullets and shells flying two inches from their heads.

So personally, from the test games I've played, there has been less micro. But you're right it is very early to tell. Hopefully you can test it out soon! I'm just cleaning up some bugs and finishing up panzer grenadiers. Once that's going then there's something playable.

Not bad. The tank targeting system and combat stuff is really nice. Debuffs and so on.

But can a tank instantly blow up when targeting the turret or hull and hitting the ammo racks? esspecially germans had ammo all over the place in the side of the hull. Will you also make differences how tanks "react" to such hits. For example the later shermans with wet storage caught far less often fire when being hit in the ammo racks. Just 10-15% actually. Average for other tanks was between 75 and 90% fire chance when it in the ammo.

Also, when the engine burns and nobody repairs the tank, does the tank can burn untill its totally destroyed and unrepairable? Or a tank that caught fire can blow up seconds later?

Last but not least, faction design? How will they differ? here i saw inf platoon with regimental armor support. A faction tweak can be that US has the "luxus" of being overall well equiped with armor, but no sort of "super armor". While an axis inf platoon or division wont have armor support but therefore lots of infantry anti tank weaponary.

Q: But can a tank instantly blow up when targeting the turret or hull and hitting the ammo racks? esspecially germans had ammo all over the place in the side of the hull. A: For now, no because of gameplay reasons. RNG is a core of CoH but too much RNG ruins the "chess" feel of the game. As of now the targeting is going to be simple else I'd have to explain all those minute reasons that you listed.

Q: Will you also make differences how tanks "react" to such hits. For example the later shermans with wet storage caught far less often fire when being hit in the ammo racks. Just 10-15% actually. Average for other tanks was between 75 and 90% fire chance when it in the ammo.A: There ARE differences between attacking different kinds of armor types, but nothing so specific as what you described for the same reason I mentioned above.

Q: Also, when the engine burns and nobody repairs the tank, does the tank can burn untill its totally destroyed and unrepairable? Or a tank that caught fire can blow up seconds later? I'm working on trying to figure how to make certain criticals unrepairable, and certain crits repairable. But for now, all criticals are repairable and they do NOT go beyond the initial effects. This isn't to say I didn't think of what you thought of... i really did but decided to NOT go down that path because I'm trying to make sure tanks aren't TOO fragile. Given the nature of the game right now, every unit counts and so I am a bit more forgiving, opening more chances to knock a unit out of action but not necessarily killed. Think when a piece in chess is pinned or undeveloped but not necessarily dead.

Q: Last but not least, faction design? How will they differ? here i saw inf platoon with regimental armor support. A faction tweak can be that US has the "luxus" of being overall well equiped with armor, but no sort of "super armor". While an axis inf platoon or division wont have armor support but therefore lots of infantry anti tank weaponary.This I think is the most fun part of the mod. Faction design is so open ended and scalable. Adding new platoons with different styles can be brought in without disrupting too much of the other platoons. I can release platoons at various stages of time and continue to create MORE platoons even after making the game public. There will be plenty of opportunity to create platoons in your vision as well as other visions. I plan for the first US armor platoon to model after what you described and the axis inf "grenadier" platoon to be what you described as well (almost a near parallel to the current USA rifle platoon but with an axis twist. bigger weapons, less mobility. sad that there are no horse models in coh2 lolol).